While reaching a 3% market share is difficult in most countries, Norway has long been the exception to the rule and it is now breaking more market share records. This means that almost one in every three cars sold now is a plug-in electric vehicle of some kind. That makes Norway the market with the highest rate of electric vehicle (EV) adoption anywhere in the world.

E-V statistics for Norway

The highly anticipated Opel Ampera-e, which arrived in late May, had 230 new registrations. American automaker Tesla has so far been the winner. However, a newcomer like the Hyundai Ioniq Electric has also started contributing with new deliveries.

A Nissan Leaf driving in bus lane

Diesel’s market shares are also falling fast in the country. It now sits at ~13% as local governments are exploring restrictions on the fuel. Compared to other European countries the EV market penetration percentage is 5.1% in the Netherlands, 3.2% in Sweden, 1.3% in the UK, 1.2% in France, and 0.7% in Germany (figures from 2016).

Electric car rally in Geiranger. Photo: Norsk elbilforening

Norway has the goal of 100% of new car sales to be zero-emission vehicles starting in 2025. As a reminder here, the plug-in electric vehicle market penetration percentage in the US was around 0.9% in 2016.

So far, US made Tesla is the most sold E-V in Norway

15 different all-electric models are offered in Norway and while it’s more than in most other markets, it’s still not enough to cover every consumer’s needs. Norway is thus like a lab experiment for electric transport.

Some EV taxis can also be seen in Norway. Photo: Andrew Henderson

And as new all-electric vehicles come to market within the next year, like the Chevy Bolt EV (Opel Amera E) and the Tesla Model 3, Norway could be on its way to reach the tipping point of the majority of car sales being electric.